No Shenanigans Expected In Florida, DNC Adviser Says

Now that the Florida GOP has assured a county circuit judge the party will not mount a mass challenge of voters on election day, DNC adviser Jamal Simmons says he is less worried about a process catastrophe in the state on election day.

"I think that we've worked with people beforehand, to get around a lot of the potential problems," Simmons told the Huffington Post. "The lawsuit got settled, the GOP agreed not to do mass challenges [in response] in response to what was, of course, a lawsuit by the Florida Democratic Party. They feel good that they stopped that."

Based on a mailer sent by the GOP to many Florida Democrats in September that falsely suggested recipients were "registered Republicans," some in the state were worried that the Republican Party was drawing up a possible list of voters to challenge at the polls on election day. Republicans always denied that the mailers -- which were also stamped "do not forward," thus meaning that if the Democratic voter had moved, their name and address would be sent back to the GOP -- were intended for anything but fundraising purposes.

But in response to the Democrats' preemptive legal strike, a Republican operative gave the legalistic equivalent of a pinky-swear last night. As the Palm Beach Post reported Monday night:

RNC Deputy Finance Director James Rowley denied that the data from the mailers would be used to challenge voters at the polls tomorrow.

"To my knowledge, the RNC does not have poll challengers and has not and will not endorse, approve, authorize or participate in any such challenges by other persons or organizations on Election Day," Rowley's affidavit reads.

Nevertheless, Leon County Circuit Court Judge Kevin Davey will be on standby Tuesday evening, in case Democrats want to present evidence of any mass GOP voter challenges.

Simmons, for his part, seemed calm Tuesday morning.

"It looks good here. We have not really been seeing any problems. There are some lines, but not any extraordinarily long ones anywhere." He said the Obama for America office in Tampa was relatively calm, compared to recent days. "We have teams out canvassing. People are just out doing election day stuff," he said.

Here's a related report from MSNBC:

Comments

[mlaiuppa]

06:28 PM on 11/04/2008

They already have.

ONE machine in heavily African American districts?

[KarateKid]

05:25 PM on 11/04/2008

Florida reminds me of a Banana Republic.

[KarateKid]

05:07 PM on 11/04/2008

This time??????? What cretins.

[Trollstakeyourmeds]

05:45 PM on 11/04/2008

So you picked that up too, huh. Wonder if anyone in the know (MSM) will address it.

[Plank]

04:35 PM on 11/04/2008

So they admit there was funny stuff last time?

[PT6]

04:30 PM on 11/04/2008

The Republican Gov. Showed common sense by extending hours!

But DO NOT LET YOUR GUARD DOWN! Remember 2000!

[luvienne]

03:57 PM on 11/04/2008

Why are the Republicans always trying to disenfranchise voters. Does that not tell thinking people anything?

[cece811]

03:53 PM on 11/04/2008

So check this out. Deerfield Beach, Fla. is one hour south of Palm Beach.
Nearly 400 people were firmly planted in line at 6:15 this morning, waiting for the polls to open at 7:00 AM.
There is ONE voting machine to accommodate all of them.
The area almost entirely African American. Many of the people have never voted before.
One woman was 101 years old. She was wheeled into the polling place and on her way out she said that before she died, she wanted to vote for a black man.
Election monitors noticed a man in line who appeared to be a voter. Turns out he was a saboteur, telling people the Democrats were supposed to vote at a different location.
Some of the voters said they were robocalled last night. The message -- Democrats weren't supposed to vote until Wednesday.

[KarlaElisa]

03:40 PM on 11/04/2008

Pinky swore my arse!

They can't be trusted.

[kid5rivers2]

03:13 PM on 11/04/2008

None expected? What madness is this that I'm hearing? It's a war on! Prepare for the unexpected!

[Mnemanth]

02:59 PM on 11/04/2008

The powers-that-be don't want to streamline the voting process, or implement an easy program which captures- objectively- the wishes of the population. By keeping it complicated, rule intensive, and non-standardized, they can stir the mud and come up with an outcome that falls in line with the wishes of their corporate keepers.
Yes- regardless of party affiliation.
The two party/ two extremes governence and choices that we have are preposterous. The lack of inclusion or coverage of the other far more moderate affiliations is transparently biased. The manner in which we "capture" the popular vote is, at best, convoluted and exasperating for the public. The "electoral college" is the government's version of a faceless corporation and should have no place in the voting system.
Until we demand better, prepare for another stolen election.

[sydney01]

02:49 PM on 11/04/2008

MSN is reporting there are big problems in Florida!

Voters in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area have experienced numerous problems trying to cast ballots this morning. We have preliminary reports of voters being turned away from the polls for incomplete registrations and instances of the statewide problem of broken optical scan machines in some two dozen polling locations all across the state.

Isn't it tragic how all the issues just "happen" to be in urban areas of swing states?

[dizmo4]

02:42 PM on 11/04/2008

Yes... no "funny" stuff just the sad, soul crushing voter disenfranchisement that comes every four years on Florida.

I think this country really needs to consider selling Florida back to Spain. Its brought us nothing but problems...

[digdeeper]

02:41 PM on 11/04/2008

Just make sure you get out and vote. Ensure the machine shows what you voted for, take a video camera if you are concerned. Hang on in the queue and if they are issuing paper ballots, get one.
Repugs will do anything to stay in power and I mean ANYTHING.
I am sure the long queues are deliberate to turn people off voting. They've had 4 years to get things right so why the long wait. The whole thing stinks.
Whats happened in Ohio by the way? There are suspicions there read:-
www.velvetrevolution.us
GET VOTING

[AlexeiJ]

02:35 PM on 11/04/2008

I'll believe it when I see it.

Meanwhile, to help fight anxiety about the outcome, here's some feel-good Obama that you can watch between rounds of phone-banking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf19H_sHMro&fmt=6

[oldfart1]

02:29 PM on 11/04/2008

Sounds as if the DNC would like to believe, and so would I, but let's wait and see.

Maybe this time they have given up on their dirty tricks because the election should be a landslide. But it the election were at all close, they would try anything and everything.

[Demi-Crat]

02:43 PM on 11/04/2008

I am normally a very non-violent person, but...Mccain, today, on TV speaking about how they are going to "WIN IT" is making me feel like whacking him good!!!